Hello, my fellow pattern-lovers! Here we are, already in September and although we have had a couple of bright sunny days in the south-west of the UK over the last week, it is definitely feeling like autumn. It’s the shortest but probably the sweetest of the seasons and is my theme for this week.
Pattern
So many beautiful autumnal patterns caught my eye when doing research this week! I eventually narrowed it down and separated them out into two different sections. The first collection features acorns, foliage and a stylistic hare:
Clockwise from top:
Acorn by Rachel Faber Design. See this and other work on her Spoonflower seller page.
Fall Foliage by Heather Dutton.
Nature Walk by Andrea Lauren. This is originally a linocut print design, see Andrea’s designs here.
A very English autumn day by Gemma Gosgrove Ball. Gemma is a UK-based dsigners with a very large and inspiring body of work available on both her website and Woven Monkey.
I really like autumnal colours and these florals are just lovely:
Clockwise from left:
I follow Elizabeth Rachael on instagram, which is where I saw this striking floral print. I would love to make a dress out of this design to wear with boots for the autumn. I was recently lucky enough to win one of Liz’s prints and it’s now mounted on the wall reminding me to ‘Take your dreams seriously’. Elizabeth Rachael is UK-based and a successful print designer, take a look at her website.
And last but not least, take a look at Shopcabin’s Spoonflower page. My final two floral patterns are from her collection.
Listen
Without getting political, I have become more and more aware of how important it is to challenge the ‘norm’ or not to restrict myself to doing something a certain way because that is how it’s always been done. This is the underlying theme of author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History – Season 4 episode 10: The Obscure Virus Club. I have listened to Revisionist History since the first episode. The podcast re-examines history and bring the listener’s attention to “the overlooked and misunderstood”. Season 4 episode 10 describes the investigations by a group of scientists who were convinced that the contremporary science world’s understanding of viruses was incorrect. Despite great opposition, scientist Howard Temin, was proved right in his theory that viruses could be transferred through DNA cells (massively over-simplified version!), winning the Nobel in 1975. I might not be selling this very well, but Malcolm is an excellent aurator and teller of stories and this is a fascinating listen. My main takeaway was, as Malcolm says ” we should be freed by our doubts, not imprisoned by them”. Revisionist History can be found here.
Tip
It’s very early on in my design life to be getting ‘artist’s block’ and although my tip this week can help with this, I have different reasons. As part of my mission to find my artistic voice/style but also to keep pushing myself and learning as much as possible, I’m reading books, doing challenges and online courses in various art practices. I have recently done a 31 day painted pattern challenge with Creative Bug. (Please see my instagram page for my work on this.) I’m thinking to write a longer post dedicated to just this, showing my work over the 2 months it took me to complete and what I have learned/where I have seen improvements. In the meantime, I wanted to record here that doing both the Painted Patterns course and this Domestika Illustration course (not yet completed) has fed my imagination and creativity. I am taking this forward into my pattern design. There is another Domestika course that I am really keen to sign up to, on Sumi-e painting techniques.
To sum up, I would heartily recommend stepping out of your comfort zone as much as possible and learning something that may not be directly linked to your pattern design.
Tutorial
This week I completed a free short training course on Adobe Photoshop. Lauren Lesley is a portrait illustrator and textile designer, providing some free material on her site to help fellow artists. This particular course has an unusual title Photoshop for Dumboheads but don’t let that put you off, that’s as far as the insults go! It doesn’t get into great depth but as an absolute beginner on Photoshop, it was ideal for me. Lauren also explains where you might choose to use Adobe Ilustrator and where Photoshop would be more applicable. I feel less daunted by opening Photoshop now and more likely to use it, especially when it comes to making repeat patterns from watercolour artwork. You can find the course here.
All the best for a good week! TTFN!
N.B. If you have any feedback on this blog or have any questions please do get in touch.